Marc Brackett, Ph.D., is founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and professor in the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine at Yale University. As a researcher for over 20 years, Marc has focused on the role of emotions and emotional intelligence in learning, decision making, creativity, relationships, health, and performance. Marc is the author of the bestselling book, Permission To Feel (Celadon/Macmillan), which has been translated into 22 languages. Most recently, with Pinterest co-founder Ben Silbermann, Marc and his team co-created the Apple award-winning app, HowWeFeel, that was designed to teach emotion skills and enhance well-being. 

Marc has published over 150 scholarly articles and has received numerous awards, including the Joseph E. Zins Award for his research on social and emotional learning and an honorary doctorate from Manhattanville College. He is on the board of directors of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the Mental Health Coalition program board, founded by Kenneth Cole, and the Rare Beauty Mental Health Council, founded by Selena Gomez.

Marc is the lead developer of RULER, a systemic, evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning that has been adopted by over 4,500 schools across the United States and in other countries, including Australia, China, England, Italy, Mexico, and Spain. RULER, which has reached over 4 million children, infuses social and emotion learning into the immune system of schools by enhancing how school administrators lead, educators teach, students learn, and families parent.

Marc regularly consults with large companies such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft on best practices for integrating the principles of emotional intelligence into training and product design. He is co-founder of Oji Life Lab, a corporate learning firm that develops innovative digital learning systems for emotional intelligence. Marc also holds a 5th degree black belt in Hapkido, a Korean martial art. 

Marc’s mission is to educate the world about the value of emotions and the skills associated with using them wisely. “I want everyone to become an emotion scientist”, he says. “We need to be curious explorers of our own and others’ emotions so they can help us achieve our goals and improve our lives.”